Atomic Bomb Nearly Wiped Out North Carolina: Documents

If bomb had detonated, disaster worse than devastation wrought in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could have befallen the U.S.

The United States narrowly averted a nuclear disaster in 1961 after two atomic bombs fell from a B-52 bomber and came frighteningly close to detonating in North Carolina, newly-released documents reveal.

On January 24, 1961, two hydrogen bombs fell from a B-52 as it broke apart in the sky and hit the ground near the city of Goldsboro.

The Air Force bomber suffered a “failure of the right wing” and broke in half while flying over North Carolina, said documents revealed by the National Security Archive this week.

As the bombs were plunging toward the ground the parachute for one failed to deploy.

The weapon whose parachute opened landed intact but the second bomb landed in a “free fall” with the impact of the crash putting…